NAWBO-Women Business Owners, Take a Look

Last night I attended a dinner for the National Association of Business Women Owners (NAWBO). It was my first, as I just recently joined when I turned my freelance graphic design and writing into a small business venture. I´d been looking forward to meeting other women business owners in my area for quite some time. It´s a difficult thing to do, especially when you work from home. Isolated at a computer much of the working part of my day, I rarely get the opportunity to sit down with other women in business and just chat. I do some through the Internet and through my todaysbusinessmom site, but as for actually meeting new women in business, I rarely get the chance.

If you are a woman business owner and you are looking to meet new business owners and network, join NAWBO. I was really impressed. The first hour was spent networking. People floated around the room wearing their nametags and introducing themselves to the people that they didn´t know. These introductions included the name and vitals of their company. Women exchanged business cards.

Then for half an hour longer we sat at our tables, ate our dinners, and chatted about our businesses. We passed around a plate and put our business cards on top and then passed it around again and took business cards out for those businesses that were represented at our table. I met a lot of great women, and I learned a lot through the speaker, Dr. Susan Murphy. I´ll be writing about some of her information in later posts. She spoke about women in business and how our personalities and our genetics play a large role in how we manage.

Overall, the business dinner was a success. There were a few flaws on my part. First, I´m still in the early conception stages of my business and am getting my logo ready as we speak. So I didn´t go bearing business cards, and I wish I had. Even if I´d made something up for now, it would have been nice to share my information. Imagine what handing out even twenty or thirty cards can do for a business! And of course, women want to support other women in business, so if you are going to use a company to do, say, marketing or finances for your small company, why not choose one that is run by women? Also, I didn´t get up and introduce myself and my company as a new member. I will do that next time. Last night, though, my almost nine month belly was tying me into the chair. So in January, once my daughter is out and about, I´ll take the opportunity to introduce myself and my business to the crowd.

The website for NAWBO is www.nawbo.org. I joined my local chapter. I highly recommend you taking a look at this if you have one in the area. Not only do they offer networking dinners, but they also offer classes, parties, and a variety of other activities to help you launch and run a successful business.